Startup Events To Attend This Week: Inc42 AMA With Girish Mathrubootham And More

Here is Inc42’s latest edition of startup events coming up this week. But before we dive into what’s in store for this week, let’s catch up on the successful events of the past week.

Inc42 successfully hosted its fourth session of Open Office Hours on Saturday (August 18) and it was a great experience for the team to hear to meet our readers and startups enthusiasts.

Even as we listened to several startups that pitched their ideas to us, it was great to catch up with our regular readers and get insights into what new we can bring to them.

Such interactions also go a long way in boosting our morale and encouraging us to keep bringing to you more in-depth, well-researched, value-added stories on the Indian startup ecosystem. After Saturday’s Open Office Hours, we’re all the more charged up about our mission.

And once again, we are here to help you book your calendars for the next week!

Inc42 AMA With Girish Mathrubootham

In the 20th episode of Inc42 Ask Me Anything (AMA) we will host Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of Freshworks (formerly Freshdesk).

Mathrubootham’s journey has been fuelled by hunger and ambition. Starting out as a pre-sales engineer, he went on to become the director of product management at Zoho, which offers a cloud software suite and SaaS applications for businesses. He then started his own venture — Freshdesk, an online cloud-based customer service software providing helpdesk support to its clients.

Freshdesk, which is now valued at $1.5 Bn, has more than 150K customers in 126 countries and generates over $100 Mn in annual recurring revenues.

Hailed as a demigod in the Indian SaaS industry, Mathrubootham is among the rare entrepreneurs who, besides running a unicorn, also mentors other startup founders and invests in them.

Interestingly, Mathrubootham has personally invested in more than 50 startups so far.

In this AMA, we’ll be talking to Mathrubootham about his learnings from his entrepreneurial journey, get insights on how to build and scale SaaS products from India, and understand his ambitious plans for Freshworks and the Indian startup ecosystem.

Date: August 23, 2018 | 3 PM Onwards

Who Should Attend: Tech enthusiasts, tech entrepreneurs, investors, students

Farm to Fork

Agrifood startup accelerator Gastrotope, along with agritech-focused venture capital firm Omnivore, is hosting a panel discussion as a part of a series of events under the Fortissimo Acceleration Programme.

Gastrotope, which was founded by Taizo Son’s Mistletoe, Rajesh Sawhney, and Infobridge, is creating a new-age sustainable agri-food farm-to-fork ecosystem.

Through this event, the companies will focus on two relevant themes and understand the current farm-to-fork sector situation; they will also think about what they can do together for the future of the ecosystem.

The discussions will be held on new consumer trends and smart farming etc.

Key Speakers:  Rajesh Sawhney, GSF India Accelerator/InnerChef; Gayathri Swahar, Y Cook; Neha Saraf, Aavishkaar; Udayraj Prabhu, Marico, and more

Date: August 23, 2018 | 5 PM- 8 PM

Venue: InnerChef, Dr Veer Nariman Road, Prabhadevi, Mumbai

MoveHack

Niti Aayog recently launched MoveHack, a global mobility hackathon inviting solutions, prototypes, and ideas to address challenges faced by India in mobility and transportation. MoveHack is focused on 10 themes and is open to individuals of all nationalities.

With a total prize money of more than INR 2 Cr, the hackathon provides opportunities for end-to-end integration of solutions in smart cities, states, and central ministries through commercial implementation.

The themes include multimodal commuter mobility in cities, multimodal freight handling and transportation, road safety, future of mobility etc. The top submissions for MoveHack will get an opportunity to sharpen their solutions at an exclusive and curated two-day mentoring workshop in Singapore. They will also get the opportunity to learn from the experiences of thought leaders of the best performing smart city globally.

The jury for the finals, to be held in New Delhi, will comprise top policymakers, venture capitalists, and business leaders focused on mobility solutions for India.

The mentors for this hackathon are Nandan Nilekani, Dr Dennis Ong, Nivruti Rai, and Debjani Ghosh, among others.

The registrations for ‘Just Solve It’ are open till August 28, while for ‘Just Code It’ first round of submissions will be accepted till August 25 and the final submission date is August 28. Interested applicants can register here!

Key Attendees: Masayoshi Son, CEO, SoftBank; Takeshi Uchiyamada, chairman, Toyota Motor Corporation; Anand G Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group; Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO, Ola, and others.

Date: MOVE-Global Mobility Summit on September 7-8, 2018

Venue: Vigyan Bhavan, Central Secretariat, New Delhi

AgriPulse Accelerate North East

AgriPulse Accelerate North East is a programme to identify and support innovative, sustainable, and scalable early-stage agri and food entrepreneurs from northeast India. The programme offers participants extensive training and mentoring, access to potential partners, customers and investors, apart from opportunities to showcase their innovations.

Date: August 20, 2018 | 8 AM- 5 PM

Venue: NEDFi House, Guwahati, Assam

That’s all for this week. Do share your experience with us if you attend any of the above events in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Events to Attend!